Judith_Sijstermans

I'm a 19 year old college student and I'll be studying abroad Spring 2012 but I'm having a really tough time deciding where I want to go and the deadlines are approaching. I've narrowed the choices down to Copenhagen, Florence, Maastricht or Edinburgh. All the academic programs are great but I'm just not sure where I'd like to spend my semester.

I'd appreciate any advice or opinions that you all have!
Thanks so much.

janisj

Well - they are all great destinations. What sorts of things interest you? What sort of experience are you looking for?

W/o knowing anything about you, and my choice could be 180 degrees from yours - I'd personally choose Edinburgh or Florence. But the two are <u>totally</u> different cities.

DeborahAnn

Judith, along with which city I would recommend looking at each of the programs within the different study abroad schools to see if the class structure, student support and accommodations are equal or if you prefer one over another. My nephew did a study abroad in Copenhagen for architecture and loved it but the high cost of living there limited his activities outside of school.

My niece is doing a study abroad program in Barcelona beginning in January and has found there is no help in the program for finding a place to stay the 6 months she will be there. She leaves in 4 weeks and still doesn't know where she will be living. Deborah

bookchick

I studied abroad---a number of years ago--in Florence, and absolutely loved it. After I finished school, I didn't return to Italy for a number of years, but when I returned, I fell in love with Italy all over again. I felt that people were very friendly, and IMVHO, the town lends itself to navigating about it easily. I also had weekends to explore by train, and spent time in Venice and in Nice, France while in school. I had a British classmate and went to the UK to her family home during school holidays. I was able to secure a place to stay through my university back then, so accomodations were not a problem.

Best wishes! I found my time abroad the very best part of my education.

BC

tower

Judith, just curious....mentioning Maastricht, I wonder if you're considering Emerson College's castle therein. Their program has had great success As an alumnus (graduating in '51, long before they bought the castle) I've followed the news in the college bulletins while serving as a west coast emmissary. My oldest granddaughter is also an Emerson Grad ('05) and considered going to Maastricht, but having spent her high school junior semester in an exchange program in Mendoza, Argentina, she was releuctant to do it..especially since she would have to leave her boyfriend at home..(they married last year).

stu
stu

tower

"Kasteek Well"...the castle to whch I've referred.
stu

hetismij

Well nearer to Nijmegen than it is to Maastricht, Stu.

Maastricht is lovely city, with a good student life, and well situated for exploring Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France Luxembourg. you can stand in three of them at one point not far from Maastricht, in Vaals.

PalenQ

I guess one advantage of Edinburgh is that there will be no language problem outside of the classroom - though you could have understanding some Scots! but the weather there is dreadful and that would be a factor to me - Maastricht's spring weather could be cool and wet as well and Copenhagen's as well so for surely fine weather head to Florence.

Maastricht IMO would be much different than the other tourist meccas - a plus and a minus perhaps.

unclegus

PalenQ ,what evidence do you have to support your statement that the weather in Edinburgh is dreadful? or even understanding some Scots,spouting your usual drivel.
In fact the language problem may be more difficult in tha classroom as a large precentage of Edinburgh's students do not have English as a first or in many cases a second language.
Edinburgh is a wonderful city and has several excellent universities (I work for one of them)before reccommending any place to study I would first ask what subjects you will be studying as each university has some specialist areas in which too study and this as far as I am concerned is an important factor.

Otzi

Florence is beautiful, but too hot and expensive for me.

Copenhagen is nice, not beautiful, too cold and really expensive.

Edinburgh is awesome for many reasons, including history, arts, nightlife and ease of getting out of town to see the surroundings. Winters can be numbingly cold, but the Spring and Summers are beautiful. Fairly expensive, but it would be my number one choice.

I've only been in Maastricht once but it proved somewhat interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the other choices. The Spring weather looks to be pleasant. Costs would be cheapest there, but still more than living on an American campus. But the best thing I can see with Maastricht is its prime location smack dab in the center of Western Europe. Trains can take you quickly and reasonably to any one of a half dozen other countries. Also, you'll find the best access to good beer here.

janisj

"<i>PalenQ ,what evidence do you have to support your statement that the weather in Edinburgh is dreadful?</i>"

The poor dear doesn't need 'evidence' - never stopped him before.

nytraveler

A couple of questions.

do you speak any italian? If not are you planning on taking comprehensive lessons before you leave? Yo can do tourist Florence with just English but to live there for a whole semester you will need to know substantial Italian. You can do any of the other 3 with just English.

How do you feel about weather? Florence will have an earlier spring but can get very hot fast. the other locations will have colder winters (but not as bad as northern US) but won;t get too hot by the time you leave.

What are you planning on studying? Are the programs in all 4 places really equivalent?

If it were me I would do Copenhagen, which I love - and from where you can do lots of touring around Scandinavia. A relative of mine did a semester in Scotland 2 years ago and adored it - but she picked it primarily for the excellence of the program - and the chance to explore the UK and Ireland.

julia1

My son studied in Maastricht and enjoyed it very much. It was a good transportation hub for all the traveling he and his friends did on weekends. Language wasn't a problem. As he said to me at the time, when I was worrying about his going off on his own to a place where he didn't speak the language (Dutch), "Mom, there are only 8 million people there. Of course they speak English - if they don't, they can only speak to each other." The housing situation was good.

One of my daughters studied in Florence and enjoyed it very much also. She spoke some Italian and got along very well. The housing situation was somewhat difficult, however, as she was in university housing shared amongst several study-abroad programs.

Another daughter studied in Avignon and again enjoyed it very much, though I think the experience was more difficult for her than it was the other two. Her French wasn't really up to the task, even though she had studied French for 4 years, but she lived with a family and Madame spoke only French. But she made some good friends and enjoyed traveling far and wide.

I guess my point is, this is a wonderful opportunity and I can't imagine you'd go wrong with any of your choices. But if you have the time and opportunity, you might see if you can have a chat with other students who have actually been in the various programs you're favoring.

travelgourmet

I would first ask if any of the programs integrate you into the university. In other words, do you take normal classes, with regular students. Many of the programs that serve only exchange students offer neither the academic rewards or the chance to meet local students.

Putting aside any concerns about academics, then I would lean toward either Edinburgh or Copenhagen, or Florence if you speak or are studying Italian. I think that Edinburgh and Copenhagen will be more likely to offer something approximating a student life, as opposed to what I would think would be an experience as a long-stay visitor in Florence. Maastricht, to my mind, is just not as compelling as the other options, though it probably serves as the best base for further travel.

One thing to bear in mind about Copenhagen is the expense. I would think it 50 to 100% more than Edinburgh or Florence.

<i>what evidence do you have to support your statement that the weather in Edinburgh is dreadful?</i>

You weren't being serious, were you?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/c...ml?tt=TT003780

alanRow

"The poor dear doesn't need 'evidence' - never stopped him before."

He's still upset that he now has to go to Hermiston Gate for his favourite tipple

hetismij

Off topic:

Julia1 8 million people where?
The population of the Netherlands is about 16 million. Maastricht is home to a bit less than 120,000 of those.

Even Belgium has a population of over 10 million.

caroline_edinburgh

Well I live in Edinburgh too and would agree that the weather is dreadful. I'm not too bothered about the winters (although I've never experienced such bad weather, anywhere I've lived, as we've had the last 2 weeks - several feet of snow and down to -15 degrees C at night) : but to me the really dreadful part is that we don't have a summer.

alanRow

"but to me the really dreadful part is that we don't have a summer."

We do - but it may be in April

Zerlina

In Florence, American study-abroad students are a subculture. They tend to hang out - and often to get drunk - exclusively with each other.

alihutch

"We do - but it may be in April"

and usually on a Tuesday...